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I am a voracious reader. Since I got acclimated to my Kindle (actually the Kindle app on my iPad mini), I think I am reading more than ever, which I didn’t think possible. Add my Audible app to the mix and my day is spent reading (or listening) to books from can’t see to can’t…

I listened to the two books in the Heorot series, The Legacy of Heorot, and Beowulf’s Children on my Audible app. The books were written by the team of Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Steve Barnes. The first book was written in 1987, the second in 1995. Although I go through periods when I read…

I am familiar with the great French author Stendhal’s novels–The Red and the Black, and The Charterhouse of Parma–having read them some years ago, but until I read an article in the online magazine The Point I’d never hear about Stendhal Syndrome. The Stendhal syndrome is a psychic disorder that causes dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when someone is exposed…

Steven Pressfield’s the War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles offers pop psychology advice to struggling writers and artists. Pressfield is most known for his novel and film The Legend of Bagger Vance. Before reading this book on my Kindle, I’d read nothing by the author. Mimicking Sun Tzu’s classic The…

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Tom Hudson

Posted on June 11, 2014 at 7:56 am

I am reading two books just now: Darwin, Portrait of a Genius by Paul Johnson, and Guide to Aesthetics by Benedetto Croce. I’ve always enjoyed Johnson’s work and this book is no exception. My only complaint is that it’s too short. Croce is primarily a philosopher of aesthetics. Both highly recommended.

Gabriel García Márquez died last Thursday. The great writer was 87. The Colombian writer won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. Marquez was a leading practitioner of magic realism, which is style that incorporates fantastic or magical elements into otherwise normal situations. That is a poor label because is assumes that reality is a known.…

“You mock, dude!” Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was a lively philosopher and prodigious writer known for his biting wit. Russell was deeply involved with the social issues of his day and spent time in prison for his efforts–for his pacifists views during World War I, and again for his anti-nuke protests in his 80’s(!). He was stripped…

We were poor when I was a kid. My father changed jobs frequently, and we moved around a lot. Early on, my younger brother and I were far down the wrong road. By the time I was in second grade, I was experimenting with cigarettes and acting the thug. In the summer before third grade,…